Work like a Woman

KEEPING AHEAD OF EMPLOYEE EXPECTATIONS

Susan Pearson consults Mary Portas’ new book to discover future ways of working

Changes in the attitudes of society inevitably impact the attitudes in the workplace. As a result, employers are forced to evolve and provide a more inclusive environment – one that is proven to be diverse. People expect more from their employer these days.

As a result, we are slowly moving away from the hierarchical, task-focus methods of working towards a flatter, people-orientated style – an environment where employee input is encouraged. The blame culture where “heads will roll” is being replaced by one of learning and progression, developing both processes and people. Organisations that are behind the curve will need to catch up.

Mary Portas discusses the developments in, and the need to go a lot further with, gender equality in her book Work Like a Woman. In the book, Mary attributes the traditional hardened ways of working to the alpha males who have been running the Boardrooms and making the decisions for so many years. While the collaborative, more emotional, intuitive ways that companies should be adopting, are stereotypically female traits. These traits are proving successful for the companies that have started to move towards the collaborative way of working.

Although I may not agree that these traits are exclusive to either gender, I do agree with the sentiment of what Mary Portas is saying. Companies should be taking the best qualities of both “male” and “female” traits and we should all work together collaboratively, enabling us to adapt to any situation.

The book explores deeper the different attitudes of management; looking at those of the traditional ‘Boys club’. Believing that for years women have had to put on a front and conform to the rules created by men in order to survive in the male-dominated workspace, thus forcing women to be more brutal than they would choose to be. Meanwhile, the women who have preferred not to conform have been forced to settle for positions with less responsibility in the organisation and not progress, thus causing an imbalance.

Reading the book forced me to reflect over my own career and whether I had created a persona in the workplace, playing the game, in order to progress my own career. Looking back, there were definitely times where I followed the “influential male leaders” in order to get noticed and get the promotion. In order to get “recognised” I would find myself in a drinking establishment most lunchtimes and evenings just to be accepted as one of the boys. While my female counterparts who didn’t play the game were left behind, and overlooked when it came to career progression.

With these memories, I have to agree with Mary that companies need to change their attitudes and become more inclusive. There is so much talent within the workforce that isn’t being tapped into just because the employers haven’t taken the time to get to know their employees better.

The book provides a great example of how a team can progress further when they communicate with each other, rather than when there is a dominant alpha-male in play. A team of men working on an oil rig were instructed to report any safety breaches made by their colleagues, the justification being that the company wanted to reduce costs. The process led to the men analysing the mistakes that were made rather than covering them up.

As a result, they began to learn from the mistakes and so began to make less. With this culture of openness, the men also began to open up to each other about how they were feeling being away from their families, and the toll of the job on their state of mind. In time, the culture on the rigs changed – those that progressed in the organisation were no longer the ‘biggest, baddest roughnecks’ but instead ‘the men that cared about their fellow workers, were good listeners, and were willing to learn’. Thus, demonstrating that open communication can lead to a motivated workforce, which in turn leads to an increase in productivity.

I recall a time when I was at university and representatives from some of the big banks came to give a presentation with the intention to entice us to join their company. Out of all the companies presenting, there was not a single female representing them – I asked the question of one company, as to why there were no females present – the answer was “women get pregnant”. Although I was shocked by the response at the time, it just put me off that one company - rather than acknowledging the true scale of the problem.

The rules for how we have traditionally worked were written by men, and favour men in the workplace. Mothers returning from maternity leave are still being disadvantaged, as companies are still wary of flexible working applications, and the associated costs. Shared Parental Leave was introduced to enable women to return to work sooner, and for men to spend more time with their family. However, according to the Government in a report earlier this year, the uptake has only been around 2%. No matter how much we try and convince ourselves that we encourage gender equality in the workplace, in reality the pre-conceptions and stigmas still exist in the subconscious.

These gender expectations are still being drummed into our children today. Society still tells girls that they must settle down and start a family. While boys are still told that they must take on the financial responsibility for the family. Failure to meet these expectations, leads to an increase in stress and a negative impact on the mental health and wellbeing of the individuals. We can’t expect gender equality in the workplace, until we change these stereotypes across all society.

The shift towards a collaborative workplace has been given a helping hand by the Millenials joining the workforce.

Millenials are not motivated by power and money, as their predecessors might have been. Instead, they are looking for total reward across every aspect of their life. Whereas previous generations became accustomed to working long hours, sacrificing time with family in the hope that they would get that promotion, Millenials and Globals are asking why would you make such a sacrifice, if in the end – you are still not happy? Instead, they want a career that enhances their life, a more collaborative way of working.

Workplaces are now adopting more flexible, creative ways of working. It is no longer about presenteeism; people don’t need to be sat at their desks from 9-5, Monday to Friday, to prove they are doing their job. Instead, the focus is about what the employees deliver. If you give your employees trust and flexibility, they will repay you with productivity and loyalty.

We still have a long way to go to achieve gender equality and an allinclusive workplace. However, with the gig-economy way of working becoming more popular, and the prediction that there will be an estimated 2 million individuals self-employed in the UK by 2019, it is now more essential than ever that we throw out the traditional ways of working and work more collaboratively and flexibly – we have to adapt in order to progress.

"Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients."

Susan Pearson, Pearson Consultancy Group

Acknowledgement to “Work Like a Woman” by Mary Portas